On Friday, Curbed LA reported on the LA Times piece about funnyman Will Ferrell showing up for a private tour of the A. Quincy Jones-designed home of the late art collector Frances Lastker Brody. While what's left on the walls is only a smattering of decent repros (standing in for Brody's original Derains and Braques), "the architecture still enthralls," notes Deborah Fabrikant, who staged the $24.9M listing. Decorator Billy Haines (famed for a client list that included the Reagans when Ronald was Governor of California) worked with Jones to complete the home in 1951, and Fabrikant took pains to recreate the glory of that era, during which Broady's father, Albert Lasker, came of age as a Mad Men-type ad genius. "I felt like I could turn the corner and find Frank Sinatra sitting in the living room," she said. "How often do you see a home that has this kind of emotional impact?" Here's how, sorta: West Elm chairs newly sheathed in old drapes original to the house and museum posters hung here and there added to Haines's mastery of midcentury design, characterized by "a breathtaking sequence of shifting views, a sleek collage of glass, warm wood and black lacquer" and "a cantilevered Lucite side table that seems to grow out of the wall." Noticeably absent from the showing, of course, was the Brody family's prized Picasso, "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust," which fetched a record-breaking $106.5M at a Christie's auction in May, and Matisse's "La Gerbe," which the family donated to LACMA. And sadly for Ferrell, there was nary a bunny in sight, even though the 11,500-square-foot home sits next to the Playboy Mansion. Perhaps it's just the impetus he needs to schedule a second visit.
· Will Ferrell Visits the Brody House, Total Grossout in Mt. Washington [Curbed LA]